msgs Command msgs
Read messages intended for all COHERENT users
msgs [-q] [number]
msgs selects and displays messages that are intended to be read
by all COHERENT users. Messages are mailed to the login msgs.
They should contain information meant to be read once by most
users of the system.
The command msgs normally is in a user's .profile, so that it is
executed every time he logs in. When invoked, it prompts the
user with the identifier of the user who sent the message and the
message's size. msgs then asks the user if he wishes to see the
rest of the message. The user should reply with one of the
following:
y Display the message.
<return> Display the message.
n Skip this message and go to the next one.
- Redisplay the last message.
q Quit msgs.
number Display message number; then continue.
If environmental variable PAGER is defined, msgs will ``pipe''
each message through the command specified in PAGER. For ex-
ample, the .profile command line:
export PAGER="exec /bin/scat -1"
would invoke /bin/scat for each message with the command line ar-
gument -1 (the digit one).
msgs writes into the file $(HOME)/.msgsrc the number of the next
message the user will see when he invokes msgs. msgs keeps all
messages in the directory /usr/msgs; each message is named with a
sequential number, which indicates its message number. The file
/usr/msgs/bounds contains the low and high numbers of the mes-
sages in the directory; msgs determines whether a user has not
read a message by comparing the information in $(HOME)/.msgsrc
with that in /usr/msgs/bounds. If the contents of
/usr/msgs/bounds are incorrect, the problem can be fixed by
removing that file; msgs will create a new bounds file the next
time it is run.
When the contents of a message are no longer needed, simply
remove that message. Avoid removing the bounds file and the
highest numbered message at the same time.
msgs accepts the following command-line options:
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msgs Command msgs
-q Query whether there are messages; print ``There are new mes-
sages'' if there are, and ``No new messages'' if not. The
command msgs -q is often used in profile scripts.
number
Start at message number rather than at the message recorded
in $(HOME)/.msgsrc. If number is greater than zero, then
start with that message; if number is less than zero, then
begin number messages before the one recorded in
$(HOME)/.msgsrc.
***** Files *****
/usr/spool/mail/msgs -- Mail messages file
/usr/msgs/[1-9]* -- Data base
/usr/msgs/bounds -- File that contains message number bounds
$(HOME)/.msgsrc -- Number of next message to be presented
***** See Also *****
commands, mail, PAGER, scat
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